It’s been a busy several weeks, gang, which is why I’ve been relatively quiet lately. But a few cool things have happened since I last updated, and there are some more cool things coming soon: We’ve had not one but TWO issues of Jersey Devil Press go live: the special Sherlock Holmes issue (the coverContinue reading “Writing news”
Category Archives: writing
2015 is a year of kickass women
I’ve been cleaning up my study this week, shelving stacks of books and bagging issues of comics, and as I’ve been working, I’ve noticed something: This year has given us a lot of amazing women in art to celebrate. Films, comics, books, television — women are kicking ass. Two of my hands-down favorite films this year were Mad Max:Continue reading “2015 is a year of kickass women”
Your 2015 holiday shopping list: books, books, and books!
It’s been a great year for books, y’all. And now that the crunch is on for gift-giving season, I wanted to share some books published in the past year by friends of mine! There is a LOT to love here — poetry, prose, anthologies, even a few adult coloring books! So I’ve included some blurbsContinue reading “Your 2015 holiday shopping list: books, books, and books!”
Setting aside Chekhov’s gun
I love Anton Chekhov. His sense of story rooted in character and culture has long held me spellbound, and I hold him as an unreachable ideal for what the best of short fiction can look like. He also had some terrific writing advice, probably the most famous of which was in favor of necessity in the details: “RemoveContinue reading “Setting aside Chekhov’s gun”
NaNoWriMo 2015: the end is the beginning
Well, I have crossed the finish line and then some. As of today, my word count stands a little more than 57,500. Of course, as I said in my previous NaNoWriMo post, a lot of those words I’ll wind up throwing out, and I also know a lot of those words might stay but become drasticallyContinue reading “NaNoWriMo 2015: the end is the beginning”
Feeling thankful for my students
I held classes on Wednesday. At our community college, we’re on a quarter system and only have ten weeks or so per course, and in a writing class, that’s never enough, so we need to use all the days we can. Of course, the day before Thanksgiving, many of my students understandably take off to visit familyContinue reading “Feeling thankful for my students”
NaNoWriMo 2015: revising without revising
It’s been a while since I’ve posted updates on my NaNoWriMo. That’s because it’s been a busy month, with a lot of side obligations I’ve been fulfilling. I judged a literary contest, I blurbed a friend’s book, I did a couple of readings, I wrote an essay a magazine solicited. It’s also been a busy month of myContinue reading “NaNoWriMo 2015: revising without revising”
Allow me to show you Where There Is Ruin
I am thrilled to announce that my fiction chapbook, Where There Is Ruin, has been accepted for publication at Red Bird Chapbooks! I’m a big fan of Red Bird’s work, and this new chapbook is especially exciting for me because I get to be part of their impressive roster of authors and poets, including my friends MatthewContinue reading “Allow me to show you Where There Is Ruin”
NaNoWriMo 2015: plot, structure, shape
I struggle with plot. In grade school, I learned that plot was just another word for story. Later, I learned a more mechanical version, that plot was the arrangement of events in a narrative. It is the order in which things happen, and it has a shape. Mostly it looks like an arc — often a sharp one, likeContinue reading “NaNoWriMo 2015: plot, structure, shape”
NaNoWriMo 2015: inspiration
A few months back, while looking through some old family miscellany, I had an idea for a new novel. This month, I’m writing that novel for NaNoWriMo. But unlike in years past, I’m trying to avoid reading much of anything while I’m writing the book — I have a pretty clear narrative voice and, as ofContinue reading “NaNoWriMo 2015: inspiration”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 